UBC TISH poet Dan McLeod devised the name for the newspaper he now owns, Georgia Straight, over beers at the Cecil with Michael Morris and Glen Lewis in 1967. As the closest pub to UBC, the Cecil Hotel attracted a literary crowd in the Sixties, many of whom were associated with the TISH poetry movement. Most noteworthy was George Bowering, who later became the first Poet Laureate of Canada.

Plaque is on lamppost at southwest corner of Richards St. and Davie St.

Photo credit: BC BookWorld

Location: Plaque is on lamppost at southwest corner of Richards St. and Davie St.

In 1987, Douglas Coupland had a solo sculpture show at the Vancouver Art Gallery called Floating World and he began describing his own ‘twentysomething’ generation for Vancouver magazine, an urban lifestyles magazine edited by Malcolm Parry, at this location.

W.P. (Bill) Kinsella lived here in a condominium in the late-1990s. His short story called Shoeless Joe Jackson Comes to Iowa was the basis for his novel, Shoeless Joe, which, in turn, became the basis for the 1989 Kevin Costner movie Field of Dreams.

Plaque is on lamppost near southeast corner of Homer St. & Georgia St.

Photo credit: Barry Peterson and Blaise Enright

Location: Plaque is on lamppost near southeast corner of Homer St. & Georgia St.

In 1995, humourist Eric Nicol fittingly became the first writer to have a plaque of B.C. marble installed in the Walk of Fame to commemorate winners of the annual George Woodcock Lifetime Achievement Award for an outstanding literary career in B.C.

Plaque is located at Hamilton and Dunsmuir, on northwest corner in front of hydro clock tower.

Photo credit: Diane Demille

Location: Plaque is located at Hamilton and Dunsmuir, on northwest corner in front of hydro clock tower.

Peter Trower, one of B.C.’s finest poets, drank here often in the 1960s with poets Milton Acorn and John Newlove when the Alcazar Hotel was a favoured hangout of writers and students from the nearby Vancouver School of Art.

Plaque is on lamppost near northeast corner of Dunsmuir St. and Hamilton St.

Photo credit: Jim Willer estate

Location: Plaque is on lamppost near northeast corner of Dunsmuir St. and Hamilton St.

When professional painter Jim Willer wrote a rare, dystopian novel about “electric government,” Paramind (1973), he became one of three co-recipients of an unprecedented $100,000 literary prize offered by the Imperial Tobacco Company for Canada’s centennial. The prize money was evenly split three ways, enabling him to build a house.